Jaw faces and jaw locking means for slidable jaw wrenches



Oct. 26, 1954 D. GRANT ETAL 2,692,524

JAW FACES AND JAW LOCKING MEANS FOR SLIDABLE JAW WRENCHES Filed Nov. 3 1950 Patented Oct. 26, 1954 J AW FACES AND JAW LOCKING MEANS FOR SLIDABLE JAW WRENCHES' Edward Desio Grant, South Croydon, and William Leonard Ward, Tooting, London, England Application November 3, 1950, Serial No. 193,800

Claims priority, application Great Britain November 14, 1949 3 Claims.

This invention relates to gripping tools having a pair of co-operating gripping or like jaws, such as spanners, wrenches, pliers, pipe cutters and the like.

One object of the invention is to provide a tool having an automatic locking and releasing action of the jaws of said tool on the work-piece gripped thereby.

A further object is to provide an adjustable spanner, wrench or the like which is formed to allow of rapid relative adjustment of the co-opcrating jaws as well as an automatic locking action of said jaws.

For bette understanding of these and other more detailed objects of the invention reference may be had to the following portion of this specification taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows in longitudinal section an adjustable wrench constructed according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a front elevational View of said tool;

Figure 3 is a section on the line IIIIII of Figure 1 with the locking wedge in disengaged position; and

Figure 4 is a view corresponding to Figure 3 of v a modification.

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the wrench comprises a handle member in carrying one jaw I2, the member it being apertured as at I4 to receive the shank It of a second jaw I 5. Shank I6 is guided within aperture l4 by shoulders H.

The aperture i4 provides a clearance between the face N3 of the member [6 and the opposite bounding wall of the aperture M. This clearance, as will be clear from Figure 1, tapers in an upwardly direction to provide a wedge-shaped clearance space between the adjacent faces of the members It and H]. The clearance is bounded by wall elements of the member Ill denoted by 20 and 22. The wall element 22 is offset outwardly from the wall element 20. The face l8 of the member i6 is provided adjacent the clearance space with a rack 24 and in the clearance space between members l6 and Hi there is pro.- vided a wedge-shaped element 26 having on its face adjacent the rack 24 a corresponding rack 28. The width of the member 26 is slightly less than the width of the offset Wall 22 bounding the clearance M as shown in Figure 3. The wedge member 26 is provided with extensions 30 projecting beyond the aperture 14 to allow of its ready manipulation.

The jaw l2 of the member I is provided with a dovetail shaped spline 32 which extends from its front edge part of the way towards its inner edge. Mounted on the spline 32 through the engagement of the latter with a correspondingly-shaped groove is a wedge-shaped grippin member 34 comprising a sliding jaw face. Member 34 is provided with serrations or the like on its outer gripping face. On the other hand the gripping face of the jaw I2 is smooth. The member 34 is provided at its extreme inner end with a pin or like abutment 36 projecting into the groove and disposed behind the spline 32 on the jaw I2. The member 34 is freely slidable outwardly of the jaw [2 for a distance governed by the abutment of the pin 36 with the inner end of the spline 32 independently of any manual manipulation of member 34. From this it will be clear that outward movement of the member 34 relative to the jaw 42 will decrease the space intermediate the jaws l6 and i2 and thus automatically produce a locking action of the jaws on the work.

The pitch of the racks 24 and 28 is such as to be less than the maximum displacement of the wedge-shaped member 34 towards the jaw 15 on its outward displacement.

The operation of the tool is as follows: To adjust jaws I 2, It": in contact with the work the wedge 26 is drawn into contact with the wall 40 of the aperture 40 so that the wedge lies within the clearance bounded by the offset wall 22. The wedge is then moved rearwardly into contact with the wall 22, in which position the racks 24, 28 disengage and the jaw l5 can be moved to produce the desired spacing of the jaws I5, l2. When the two jaws are in contact with the workpiece the wedge member 20 is moved forward so as to cause engagement of the racks 24, 28 and the wedge is then moved across the clearance space into contact with the wall 42 thereof. In this position the wedge member 26 will lock the movable jaw 16 relative to the handle member I 0.

As the tool is rotated about the Work in the direction of the arrow the gripping member 34 will slide outwardly relative to the jaw I2 automatically and without direct manipulation to produce a positive and automatic locking action of the two jaws. As the force required to rotate the tool is increased, thus tending to cause slipping between the jaws of the tool and the work-piece, so outward displacement of the member 34 increases and the gripping action of the jaws will be correspondingly increased. Release of the tool from the work is obtained immediately by rotating the tool in the direction opposite to that required for producing the locking of the jaws on the work.

Alternatively, as shown in Figure 4, the wider clearance space may be produced by the provision on the face is of the shank 16 of a rack 24 not exceeding half the breadth of said face. On the other half 23 of face l8 a clearance substantially equal to the depth of the rack 24 is provided.

In using a tool so formed, the sliding jaw I is locked by the wedge member 26 being moved into contact with the lateral wall 49 of the clearance space when the rack 28 on the member 26 slides into engagement with the rack 24. Disengagement or unlocking of the jaw is effected by lateral sliding of the wedge member 26 into contact with the lateral wall 42 bounding the clearance space, thus providing disengagement of the racks 24, 28 without the necessity of any rearward movement of member 26 as in the case of the construction shown in Figures 1 to 3.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is shown in the drawing and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A slidable jaw wrench comprising a handle member carrying one jaw, a shank member carrying a second jaw supported on and movable relative to the first jaw, means forming a clearance space between the shank of said second jaw and said handle member, said clearance space being of longitudinal tapering form, a rack on one of said members bounding said clearance space on its face adjacent said clearance space, said rack having a width not exceeding one-half the width of said face and the other half of said face being offset to a depth substantially equal to the depth of said rack whereby to provide a clearance space of greater depth, a wedge member disposed within said tapering clearance space and having a width not exceeding the width of said deeper clearance space, a corresponding rack on the face Of said wedge member adjacent said first rack and a wedge shaped sliding jaw face mounted on one of said jaws for free displacement along said jaw and adapted on outward movement to decrease the effective jaw interspace, the pitch of said racks being less than the decrease of the effective jaw interspace on maximum outward displacement of said sliding jaw face, said sliding jaw face being formed with a roughened gripping surface and said other jaw having a smooth gripping face.

2. A slidable jaw wrench comprising a handle member carrying one jaw, a shank member carrying a second jaw supported on and movable relative to the first jaw, means forming a clearance space between the shank of said second jaw and said handle member, said clearance space being of longitudinally tapering form, a rack on one of said members bounding said clearance space on the face adjacent said clearance space, said rack having a width not exceeding one-half the width of said space and the other half of said space being offset to a depth substantially equal to the depth of said rack whereby to provide a clearance space of greater depth, a wedge member disposed within said tapering clearance space and having a width not exceeding the width of said deeper clearance space, a corresponding rack on the face of said wedge member adjacent said first rack and means on one of said laws for reducing the effective jaw interspace upon rotation of said wrench in one direction and for increasing the effective jaw interspace upon rotation of the wrench in the opposite direction, the pitch of said racks being less than said decrease of the effective jaw interspace.

3. In a slidable jaw wrench a pair of gripping jaws having confronting faces relatively movable toward and away from each other, means for selectively locking said jaws in step by step spaced positions against movement away from each other, the confronting work engaging face on one jaw being a straight surface, the confronting face on the other jaw being a straight surface inclined with respect to the face of said one jaw so that the outer end of said inclined surface lies at a smaller distance from the face on said one jaw than does the inner end of said inclined surface, a wedge shaped jaw member slidably mounted on said inclined surface with the thicker portion of said jaw member disposed adjacent the inner end of said inclined surface and a work engaging face on said jaw member in opposition to said work engaging face on said one jaw whereby upon engagement of said work engaging faces with a work piece and upon rotation of said wrench in one direction, said jaw member will slide outwardly on said inclined surface to decrease the effective distance between said work engaging faces to firmly grip said work piece and upon rotation of said wrench in the opposite direction said jaw member will slide inwardly on said inclined surface to increase the effective distance between said work engaging faces and permit disengagement of said work piece.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 269,072 Lee Dec. 12, 1882 632,082 Anderson Aug. 29, 1899 879,155 Ellis Feb. 18, 1908 952,634 Post Mar. 22, 1910 1,382,761 Cavanaugh June 28, 1921 1,392,238 Stewart Sept. 27, 19 1 1,428,546 Johnston Sept. 12, 1922 1,502,900 Briles July 29, 1924 1,557,690 I-Iill Oct. 20, 19 5 2,574,834 Leonard Nov. 13, 1951 

